Jesse Tree: Store Bought Ornaments

Although I'm making most of the ornaments for our Jesse Tree, there are a few that I have purchased.

I found this ladder on sale at a local Christmas store in January. It is for our Jacob devotional during Advent and symbolizes Jacob's dream. I love how big it is and the rustic gold look. Instead of hanging it, I'm just going to tuck it in the branches of our tree.

This clay jar was only $0.99 from Goodwill. We're using it for our Gideon devotional. It is the closest representation of what I imagine their clay pots looked like. I'm going to put a small votive candle inside of it.

This nativity scene ornament is from Hobby Lobby. They have them right now. I've had a hard time finding a good nativity ornament for our final devotional during Advent: the birth of Christ. Most of the ones I'd come across were kind of ornate or gaudy. I love this one.

I'm working on a few other homemade ornaments, one of which is a wooden pirate ship converted into Noah's Ark.

Jesse Tree: Jonah Ornament and Other Ideas

Oh, I love how this one turned out! Here is the Jesse Tree ornament for our Jonah devotional during Advent. I used a pattern from this Softies book: I just scaled it down to ornament size and omitted the little bird from the top of the whale. Cute, huh? And the cost, less than $1.50, makes it even cuter somehow.

Hey, I'm making a pretty good dent in these ornaments. Hopefully I'll get them all finished before December rolls around. We'll see.

My friend Becca had some great suggestions for other ways to create a Jesse Tree. She thought of buying a bunch of picture frame ornaments and putting a picture of each symbol in them. This would make quick work of assembling a set and the tree would have a very uniform look to it.

Another of her ideas is to use a tree branch instead of a large Christmas tree. You could hang gift tags with the symbol drawn on them instead of ornaments. She also suggested using this wire card holder as the "tree". These are great ideas if you don't have the space for a Christmas Tree. Thanks for sharing, Becca!f

Jesse Tree: Lamb Ornament

I just finished the lamb ornament for our Jesse Tree. The lamb {or ram} is the symbol for our devotional during Advent about God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and then providing a ram instead.

My mother-in-law and I were at Crate & Barrel after Christmas this year and found this little guy on sale for like $1.

I snatched him up and brought him home with plans to transform him from a shabby gray sheep into a nice white lamb {ram} for our Jesse Tree. Even though I didn't start from scratch, you easily could if you want to make something like this.

The following is what you would need:
One small sheet of white felt
White yarn
Small wooden knob
Black and white paint
One small dowel rod
Hot glue
Fishing line

Here's how I transformed this little guy. First, I tore him apart and gave his old gray fur a toss.

I cut out two circles of white {or in my case, off-white because I already had some} felt and hot glued them together.

His legs are 2 1/2 inch lengths of dowel rod painted black. I glued those onto the felt circle. Ignore the remnants of gray yarn and dried hot glue from his previous life.

I'm thinking for the head, you could use a small piece of wood or even a small wooden knob. Paint it black and make two white dots for the eyes. Cut two small ovals out of black felt and hot glue them to either side of the head for ears. Glue the head to the center of the felt circle on the same side as the legs. I obviously just put his old head back on.

For the fur, hot glue thick white yarn to the felt circle. Start near the head and coil the yarn around as you glue it until it covers the entire circle. Do the same for the back side.

I had some white yarn already that I wanted to use but it was a bit thin to just glue on as is. Instead, I knit a cord of it for either side, making it thicker and fluffier.

To hang, thread a strand of fishing line through the top of the ornament with a needle and tie ends together.

That's it. Little time, little money. That's my kind of project!

I have a couple more of these ornaments in the "nearly-done" phase and I'll post them here soon.

Library Note: My Life As A Chicken

Here's another book we grabbed at the library and were pleasantly surprised to read when we got home. My Life As a Chicken by Ellen Kelley is a new favorite. With melodic, action-packed text, the reader is taken along Pauline's perilous journey from the hen house to a petting zoo. The story is captivating for a young one like Boo and peppered with all sorts of great vocabulary words like "plummeting", "spellbound", "unoccupied", and "aeronaut". The first few times we read it without pausing, caught up in the action of Pauline's adventure. Now, we occasionally pause and I ask Boo questions about the story to see if he's catching on to some of the more advanced words. And with the context, he's already understood the meaning of most of the new, more difficult words in the book. It's so well written and the illustrations are as interesting as the story. Check it out!

Jesse Tree: Creation Ornament

I found the perfect ornament the other day for our Jesse Tree. I'd had been looking for a globe/world to represent our Advent devotional on Creation and I finally found one I like. It's a decorative globe ball from World Market.

I love the muted tones of it and that it's made out of paper. I'm really trying to go for a hand-made, subtle look with the ormanents and am planning to decorate the tree with browns and blues to go with the decor in our family room. So this is perfect.

I just drilled holes in the top and bottom and threaded it with a brown satin ribbon. It's ready to go. One ornament down....twenty four to go.